LV Music: New album turns into 'Nightmare' for rock band Hinder

December 11, 2010|By John J. Moser, OF THE MORNING CALL

The rock band Hinder was nearing the end of a year's work on an album to follow 2008's Top 5 charting, gold-selling disc "Take It to The Limit." The group had written about 70 songs and made demos of about 50.

The disc was to be called "2 Sides of Me," after its lead-off cut, when they started working on a full-out rocker called "All-American Nightmare."

"It was actually one of the last songs we wrote for the record," Hinder singer/frontman Austin Winkler says in an interview this week from Syracuse, N.Y. "This song came at the very end and was kind of one of those things -- we just kinda all looked at each other and we're like, 'That's the name of this [freaking] song, it's the name of this record, it's kind of everything we're representing right now."

Hinder will play that song and others off its third album, "All-American Nightmare," released Tuesday, during a stop tonight at Allentown's Crocodile Rock Café, part of a set of club dates to gear up for a full tour on the new album this summer.

The song, released two weeks ago, already has hit the Top 10.

"We look at the record as a whole," Winkler says. " 'All-American Nightmare' kind of represents the basic – sets the tone for the record. I think it's definitely the most unique rock song we had on there, so that's why we went with it as our first single."

The record not only includes that straight-forward rocker and others such as "Strip Tease," but songs with more guitar sound, such as "Red Tail Lights," and even bluesy southern rock on "What Ya Gonna Do" as Hinder looks to recapture the success of its 2005 triple-platinum major-label debut, "Extreme Behavior" and it's No. 1 single "Lips of an Angel."

"We started actually demoing songs for what was going to be 'All American Nightmare' on the last leg of the 'Take It to the Limit' record," Winkler says. "We had a studio in the back of the bus and we'd play like an hour-and-a-half set [at shows], and then I'd go and sing for another two hours. We spent a lot of time working on it."

Writing so many songs was a departure for the Oklahoma-based band, which for its previous discs "just wrote however many the record label would ask," Winkler says. "We narrowed it down to the 12 that would be the best of our ability and kind of where we were at in our lives right now " and kept 10 for the official release and two others for an extended release.

The lyrics again have the band's "life to the fullest" approach and autobiographical flavor.

Winkler credits producer Kevin Churko, who had worked with artists as diverse as Shania Twain and Ozzy Osbourne with helping the album find its sound. Uber-producer Howard Benson of Delaware County originally set to do the disc, but he and the band didn't mesh, Winkler says.

"Not taking anything away from Howard … I don't think he really got what we were trying to go for and Kevin Churko did and nailed it on the head," he says. "It was pretty amazing to work with him and see what he brought to the table.

Winkler says Churko "always seemed to surprise us and would kind of take the idea of the song and put a twist on it and take it in a different direction in some way that we probably wouldn't have taken it."

But Winkler also says Churko "actually gave me a lot of freedom whenever it came to the vocals. We would get the take that we needed, and then he also would also give me the same amount of time to kinda just [fool] around and do whatever the hell I wanted. And it really pushed me as a vocalist and brought out some things I didn't actually know I had in there."

Winkler says the club dates are an effort by the band to "just kind of like to go back, kind of back to where we started a little bit, and do these little smaller, more intimate clubs, and see what people think of the new record."

" You know, we bring the same show no matter what, no matter if it's a big venue or a small venue. And it's all about the vibe of the fans anyway. So we bring our energy and they bring theirs and playing in the smaller venues is a little more intimate and it's a little more fun. You try your best to look everybody in the eye. It's a really cool experience."

Winkler is particularly excited about the song "Put That Record On," another Southern rocker that he says has been getting a lot of attention.

"Keep an eye out for that," he says. "A lot of people are thinking that will be the one that goes."

Of course, the band set a high bar for itself with the power ballad "Lips of an Angel," with hit No. 1 on Billboard's Mainstream Top 40.

"We're definitely always challenging ourselves [but] it's hard to go beyond No. 1," he says, laughing. "But there's definitely a hope. I mean, I think this record has a lot of contenders on it that could actually do that and we'll just have to see what people think. What we think isn't [crap] compared to what other people think."